Troper in Holland to Study Shift of J.D.C. Headquarters to Neutral Country

Acting upon instructions from New York, Morris C. Troper, European director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, has left for Holland to study the possibilities of moving its headquarters, now temporarily at Anger, to a neutral country. With him went Irwin Rosen, of New York, who will remain in Holland to supervise relief work for Jewish refugees in Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Another American member of the J.D.C. staff, M. Beckelman, is scheduled to leave for the Baltic countries. His trip was decided upon after receipt of advice from the United States Minister at Riga that he is consulting the Latvian authorities about the possibility of enabling the J.D.C. to administer relief to refugees from Poland and that he has asked the American Legation at Kaunas to institute similar negotiations with the Lithuanian authorities.

Meanwhile, the J.D.C. is coping with the problem of maintaining the families of Jewish refugees interned in France and establishing free kitchens for thousands of nonrefugee families here and in Belgium who have lost their means of livelihood because establishments for which they worked were liquidated in connection with war requirements. The J.D.C. is also faced with the problem of aiding more than 100,000 Jewish refugees in neutral European countries.

Representatives of the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association in Rumania, Latvia and Lithuania have started registration of Jewish war refugees from Poland who have relatives in the United States, according to advices received by the organization’s headquarters here. The registration was stated be the first move in efforts to bring the refugees in contact with relatives abroad.

Simultaneously, the HIAS-ICA offices here have been informed from London and Amsterdam that more than 3,000 Jews from Bratislava, Prague and Vienna are ready to leave for Palestine but need funds for passage. Zionist quarters in London and Amsterdam have asked the HIAS-ICA to contribute a total of $175,000 toward fare for the refugees.

The HIAS-ICA task, which has been chiefly to aid refugees in emigrating to the United States and Latin American countries, has been made more complicated by the fact that the new French currency laws make it practically impossible to transfer relief funds from France to any foreign neutral country where the refugees are assembled. The same situation is true with regard to the J.D.C., but while the latter organization can send its funds to the respective European countries directly from New York, such procedure is impossible with the HIAS-ICA whose funds are made up from sums contributed in equal parts by the J.D.C., the Jewish Colonization Association and the Council for German Jewry. The latter two bodies, being British organizations, fall under the British currency law which restricts transfer of funds from England. Thus, the HIAS-ICA depends chiefly at this time upon funds coming from the J.D.C. for its emigration work.

With the directors all in Paris, the HIAS-ICA, despite its problems, is continuing its work as usual and is receiving the usual assistance from the French authorities.